Feb 26, 2008 6:30 pm US/Eastern
South Florida Power Grid Shutdown
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
-
-
Traffic backup along NW 87th Avenue in Doral during Tuesday's power outage.
David Sutta/CBS
Two nuclear stations at Turkey Point in south Miami were tripped offline after a sudden surge in a power substation interrupted electricity throughout much of South Florida on Tuesday.
Natalie Tor, a witness, who lives near the 9250 West Flagler substation which reportedly had a voltage surge, said to
CBS4 Peter D'Oench "I heard an explosion, it was very strong. At that point, she explained, "the power then went out."
It was reported by
CBS4 that the West Flagler substation had a voltage equipment surge that created an anomaly to happen on the electrical grid system. What happened next was that FPL's two nuclear stations were taken offline, possibly manually, which prompted the unprecedented shutdown of electricity throughout South Florida.
Most people will get service by 6pm, according to FPL spokesman Mayco Villafana, and described the electrical power failure as "extraordinary". However, another utility spokesperson, Aletha Player, did confirm there was a 'system failure" at its West Flagler substation at 1.09p.m., but did not have all the information as to what led to the 'failure'.
To put in perspective what happened today, South Florida consumers get their electricity distributed from a power utility's substation. Electricity is transmitted over long distances through those stations with the assistance of overhead power transmission lines.
A power transmission system is sometimes referred to as a "grid", and there are paths and lines routed from any power plant, like Turkey Point, to any substation center, through a variety of routes, based on the economics of the transmission path and the cost of power.
FP&L confirmed there was a voltage surge at one of its substation plants, which disrupted the grid, causing two Turkey Point reactors to respond to the disruption by going offline, causing a massive power outage.
In some cases, this can cause a blackout in one section of a grid, or even ripple throughout the whole grid, sequentially shutting down one section after another.
Once large sections of a grid are shut down, it may be difficult or impossible to restore power from neighboring grids.
When power is restored, it can cause a sudden surge in demand that the system may not be able to accommodate. When electric motors, transformers and other electrical devices are all energized at once, it can draw many times the normal load and can trip a secondary shutdown.
For this reason, engineers restore power after a massive blackout in stages, one section after another, so there is no sudden, overwhelming demand.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
